Venice

So I was quite excited about going to Venice. As much as I liked Florence and could have stayed there for weeks I was looking forward to seeing one of the unique cities in the world. We arrived into the train station and jumped on the number 1 Vaporetto which stops everywhere down the Grand Canal and would take us a short walk from our hotel. A beautiful afternoon made the ride very pleasant as we took in the sights of the most remarkable high street in the world. I was expecting filthy water but actually it was shining in the sun a pleasant bluey-green and I would almost have fancied a dip.On arrival at our, small but pretty, hotel we checked in to our "French Bedroom" with padded gold wallpaper and gilt edged wardrobe and were ready for an interesting adventure.

We spent most of our time here wandering amongst the canals, exploring the less touristed areas and enjoying the unique nature of the place. Every time we went to St Marks Square or one of the other busy areas it became a bit of a chore getting through the narrow streets, but away from that it was a pleasure. We did have a nice coffee in Florians on St Marks - a coffee shop that has been there for nearly three hundred years and has served generations of the great and good over the years. Very classy on the velvet seats and gold effect coffee filters. We took in a couple of the less well known churches, which were still rather impressive, and went to the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery of Modern Art which contained numerous Picasso's, Dalis and Pollocks - and made a change from the usual religious art we had been seeing in Florence.